Red Cross Museum Is a Tribute to Compassion

Most museums are built around a collection of artifacts. But what tangible objects can adequately represent an organization dedicated to the alleviation of human suffering?

That was the challenge in developing the International Museum of the Red Cross here, a challenge met with an original concept that has been called “a milestone in the history of museology” when it opened in the fall of 1988.

Even the entrance proclaims that this is no ordinary museum. Access is through a trench cut into a grassy hillside opposite the United Nations. At the end of the trench is a small courtyard protected by canopies bearing the Red Cross and Red Crescent emblems.

A group of blindfolded and bound figures denouncing the violation of human rights, created by Swiss sculptor Carl Bucher, maintains a silent vigil before the reflective glass wall surrounding the main door, the only visible external part of the museum. The rest of the three-story building is set into the hillside.

Inside, walls are dark and overhead lighting is subdued, because many of the exhibits and descriptive signage are created with light. Technology has made it possible to portray the history of the Red Cross in a way that no quantity of artifacts could.

The museum was conceived as “a large picture book,” using primarily narrative and illustrations to bring to life for visitors the achievements of the Red Cross. While it is not totally devoid of three-dimensional objects, most of the materials it contains are archival, collected from sources around the world.

Visitors expecting to see films of the Red Cross in action during World Wars I and II are not disappointed. But other visual presentations are more surprising.

In several areas, photographs and documents are reproduced on sheets of transparent fabric and carefully lighted so that the images can be viewed through one another. At times, visitors find themselves inside a labyrinth of these life-size images, as if they, too, were part of the scene.

A multi-projector slide presentation about the 1859 Battle of Solferino, part of the struggle to liberate Italy, becomes something more as the ghostly image of Red Cross founder Henry Denant begins to wander among the period maps, engravings, prints and paintings used to depict the event.

Dunant, a Geneva businessman, arrived at Solferino three days after the battle and found thousands of wounded soldiers suffering from lack of medical care. After mobilizing the local population to assist him in treating the victims, he returned to Geneva “determined to do everything possible to organize relief of the wounded.”

At the end of the presentation, the screen parts to show the only natural-light exhibit in the museum--American artist George Segal’s all-white sculpture of Dunant writing “A Memory of Solferino,” his account of the battle that led to the establishment of the Red Cross in 1864. Daylight is admitted through a glass pyramid projecting into the museum’s entrance courtyard.

Throughout the museum, commentaries and captions are provided in German, French and English. In keeping with the elusive quality of many exhibits, some signs are projected in light onto an adjacent surface.

Appropriately, the Wall of Time is more substantial. A chronology of events that shaped the first 125 years of Red Cross and Red Crescent history, it is written onto the museum wall at average eye level and stretches around the majority of the exhibits.

Among the events included on the wall is the Russo-Turkish War (1870-1875), during which the Turks asked Geneva for permission to replace the cross, “which wounded the feelings of the Moslem soldier,” with the crescent.

Both the Red Cross and the Red Crescent remain in use, and are the only symbols recognized by the Geneva Conventions, international agreements for treatment of the sick and wounded and protection of prisoners and civilians during times of war.

If the museum wall is itself an exhibit, so is at least part of the floor. Set into one section of it is a 21,590-word telegram sent by American authorities to the International Committee of the Red Cross in 1943, listing the names of 2,341 World War II prisoners transferred to the United States.

Elsewhere is displayed the entire 7 million-card index compiled by the International Prisoners of War Agency in Geneva during World War I. The index was assembled to assist in finding and identifying 2 million detainees held in prison camps and to help put them in touch with their families.

Where the Wall of Time leaves off, a 20-screen video wall picks up, showing satellite relay pictures of work being done today by Red Cross or Red Crescent representatives somewhere in the world.

Nearby, visitors can activate slide presentations of the organization’s activities in their own countries or use computer terminals to ask questions.

To tell the organization’s story, the International Museum of the Red Cross depicts many human tragedies--disasters, epidemics and especially war. But care is taken not to convey morbidity and not to pass judgment. The mission of the Red Cross has always been indiscriminate relief, and the museum lets the organization’s acts of compassion speak for themselves.

Almost 10 years were spent planning and building this museum. The project was funded exclusively from public and private sources. Contributors are acknowledged on a Donors’ Wall inside the entrance, and include such diverse entities as the American Express Bank and Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani.

Materials for some exhibits and land for the building are on loan from the International Committee of the Red Cross, which is headquartered atop the hill into which the museum is built.

The museum has permanent exhibits covering 2,213 square yards, plus an area for temporary displays and an auditorium for related events. A minimum visit of 90 minutes is needed to take it all in, and a cafeteria and gift shop make it easy to stay longer.

Admission price is 10 Swiss francs for adults.

At 17 Avenue de la Paix, the museum is open between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. daily except Tuesdays. Geneva has convenient public transportation, with bus 8 or F stopping at Avenue Appia on weekdays and bus 5, 8, 14 or F stopping at Place des Nations on weekends.